News feminist philosophers can use

SheZow?

Have any FP readers seen SheZow? I came across a description of this animated kids show today and it looked fascinating for raising questions of gender and identity in the context of super heroes fighting crime. I mean, if we can turn into crime fighting spiders why must gender be fixed?

Here’s the IMDB description:

“Twelve year old, Guy Hamdon accidentally becomes a superhero, but the ring that gives him his powers was only meant to be worn by a woman. So whenever there’s danger, Guy transforms into SheZow, a kick-ass female superhero with big hair, high heels and a beautility belt that houses various super weapons concealed inside feminine products like laser lipstick and vanishing cream. Guy’s aunt Agnes was secretly SheZow for years, until she died. Then Guy’s family inherited her home. In the basement, Guy found her secret lair and her power ring. Well, actually his twin sister Kelly found the ring and was about to put it on, when Guy snatched it from her and and put it on, as a joke. But once on Guy’s finger, the ring was stuck and he will forever be SheZow, a powerful superhero with super strength, super speed and a 6th sense called She-S-P. Guy would rather not wear pink spandex and a tight skirt, but it seems a small price to pay for such she-mendous super powers.”

Wikipedia tells me this: “Shezow is an Australian-Canadian animated television series created by Obie Scott Wade, which began airing on Network Ten on 15 December 2012, and will run for 26 episodes. Aimed at kids 6-11 years-old, the series is produced by Moody Street Kids and Kickstart Productions.”

Anyway, I’m curious. If you’ve seen it, let us know what it’s like. If not, and you’ve got kids, or a research interest in kids, popular culture and gender, it looks worth tracking down. Wikipedia and the ad below seem to disagree about the intended audience age. I wonder if that’s country specific.

My son asked me to watch this, I read over it, thought it looked entertaining and said yes. After the first episode I was not impressed. A young boy inherits his aunts ring and becomes a girl hero. Seems ok right now… Until you see the hero. Pinks on pinks with leopard print and high heeled boots. One of her super powers is a whiny screech so loud that she blasts people away. All her superpowers were incredibly superficial and after watching it my son told me that leopard print is for girls. My son has never told me anything is specifically for girls before. Pink is his favorite color. I thought this show might make gender roles seem silly but instead the humor and jokes are because a boy is doing “girl things”. Maybe if you’re already raising your kids sexist this would be an interesting show for them. But for someone who is trying to teach their children that pink isn’t for girls and boys can also have long hair, this show really enforces gender stereotypes.

Much like the My Little Pony reboot the fandom around Shezow is much more interesting however unlike MLP Shezow doesn’t stand as strongly… but whatever.

Try looking up Shezow fanart, the way the fans interact with the concept is much more interesting than what the show, at least to me.
The show plays around with gender expectations, subverts some ideas like the heavy gendering of the costume and arsenal being passed down to someone for whom it isn’t meant for. That’s kinda neat. However while it subverts sit ultimately affirms the expectations via its jokes.

The fans draw a lot of fanart; they still do occasionally despite the cancellation, a great deal of it highly sexual, most of it interacts and explores gender in more dynamic ways than the show is willing and/or maybe even capable of. The line between Guy and Shezow is much more vague in the fanart, not as clearly defined as it is in the show. There’s more exploring of Guy’s femininity in the fanworks, enough to make you forget that it was forced upon him at first, as well as his relationships, both sexual and not, with the male characters, like his BFF and villain and the other gender bending hero Dudepow (Who is arguably more aggressively gendered than Shezow since he has ludicrous muscles for a 10 year old kid. and seemingly more on board for the stereotypes the character literally embodies.)

There is only piece of art that very aggressively rejects the character as transgender however it seems like it was only one or at least a minority within a minority of fans.

I dunno. The show in and of itself is serviceable, harmful in some respects and subversive in others but I guess that’s moot since it’s over now. Maybe the comic book will be better? Till then we still have Sza Sza Zaturnnah!

I am absolutely enraged by all parents that wished this show to be cancelled, which ultimately it is. I am absolutely enraged by the ignorance and pointless fear, of the cartoon.
My son, Kenny, used to adore this cartoon, I watched it with him and accompanied him each TV time, and whenever this show showed up, he loved every second of it, why? Because it’s just good, there is no other reason to describe it. You Must* understand that children copy what’s on TV but to a certain extent in a certain age.

Take me for a big example, as a child I have watched Bugs Bunny cross-dressing and kissing males, ultimately I have became a normal adult, that is not homosexual nor cross-dressing full time.
Some children would have a tiny urge to dress as shezow, simply because they like shezow her/himself. Let’s take Batman, some young girls dress up as him because he is their favorite hero, and thus they like him and will not cross-dress all the time, which I’ve stated before. There are no dirty jokes that are visible by children or even most teenagers, I myself haven’t spotted any dirty jokes, so cancelling such a cartoon with such a phenomenal and creative story plot, is just unacceptably stupid. Parents all over the world wanted to cancel this show, simply out of their ignorance and fear. Shame on you, those who protested to cancel this show.

My son is not really young, to not know what gender is and what feminism was. He didn’t care about gender differences, he just laughed at the humor provided by the show, until it got cancelled.

Here is a thing for you all, the show does not raise your children, you do, and it’s up to you, to tell your child what’s right and what’s wrong, it’s up to you to show your child the world and explain it until you know that your child is ready to do it alone. My son is just like every other boy, but a tad sad that his favorite show is gone, Forever, may I add.

“Fan-Arts” of the show are made by the older age group that includes teenagers that are always exploring sexuality and their preferences, leading to the art works that “explore” the show’s content a lot more deep and has nothing to do with the problem that lays before us, is insecurity of the parents that protested against this show. Right now we do not have any hard evidence that ALL children are affected by this show, so we cannot even dare to judge, therefore, I cannot do anything to return this show for my son’s and probably your children’s content. That is all.